The president’s visit to East Africa has been the occasion for
the same kind of hypocritical finger pointing Barack Obama usually
reserves for his frequent hectoring of Black America, this time using
“gay rights” as the standard. It’s a standard which he would never use
to lecture America’s other vassals like the bloodstained
beheading backward Saudi regime.
On January 20, 2017 Barack Obama will leave the presidency and those
black people capable of critical thought will have many reasons to
breathe sighs of relief. They will no longer have to submit to
condescending lectures directed exclusively at them. From the moment he
ran for president Obama has harangued black people on a wide variety of
issues. It doesn’t matter if his audience is made up of church
congregants, graduating students, or Kenyan dignitaries. Every black
person unlucky enough to be in his vicinity risks being treated like a
dead beat dad, career criminal or cousin Pookie, Obama’s own imaginary
Willie Horton.
During his trip to east Africa the president chastened Kenyans about
gay rights, domestic violence, genital cutting, forced marriage and
equal rights for women. He went on and on with no mention of how well
his country lives us to any accepted standards of human rights.
American presidents have no business chastising others. The country
with the world’s largest prison state, military and history of
aggressions is on shaky ground when giving anyone else advice. In the
neighboring country of Somalia the United States regularly sends drones
intended to kill al-Shabaab fighters but they deliver collateral damage
to other people too. The blowback has killed many Kenyans, who are targeted by al-Shabaab because of their country’s role as an American puppet.
Because hypocritical Americans have made gay rights the new
measurement of societal well being all over the world, the president
took the opportunity to castigate Kenyans about that too. Of course
homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia, America’s partner in crime.
Yet there is no record of public shaming for any Saudi prince or king on
that or any other issue. Their sensibilities are deemed too delicate
for tongue lashing. It must be pointed out that Saudis take lashing
quite literally.
Those countries that are considered important are never called to
account about American concerns du jour. They can even be praised no
matter how awful their behavior. The president regularly genuflects to
Israel, a country which violates every norm of international law,
including the Geneva Conventions prohibitions against collective
punishment. In Gaza civilians of every age and gender are massacred and
Israel maintains the right to continue the bloodshed, and always with
American financial and military support.
Obama even compared the establishment of Israel’s
apartheid state to black Americans’ fight for liberation. That
statement was a lie, a grotesque distortion of history. The slander is
akin to a blood libel but Africans cannot expect the recitation of
bizarre statements on their behalf when Obama comes to town.
The recipients of American hypocritical condemnation are many. While Obama was brow beating Africans, Syrian president Bashir al-Assad was
telling the world about his nation’s suffering at the hands of the
United States. More than 200,000 of his citizens are dead, and up to 9
million are refugees because the United States claims the right to
decide who should control that country.
“They [the Western countries] call it terrorism when it hits them,
and [they call it] revolution, freedom, democracy and human rights when
it hits us.” For four years the United States and allies like Saudi
Arabia have waged a terror campaign against Syria. The Islamic State, ISIS,
is also part of the terror mix, but it wouldn’t even exist without the
United States. Now ISIS is used as a subterfuge in the effort to finish
off Assad and what is left of his country.
In Obama’s finger wagging about the treatment of Kenyan women he made
a point that he would do well to remember about himself and the United
States. “Every country has traditions that are unique. Just because
something is a part of your past doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t mean
that it defines your future.”
If those words were applied to his country all the jails would be
emptied, the banks would be nationalized, and the United States military
would start closing up foreign military bases and heading for home.
There would be no need for Africom because imperialism would be off the
table. Saudi princes would have to look elsewhere to destabilize other
nations. Israel would have to free Palestine and Iran could enrich all
the uranium it wanted. There would be no income inequality based on race
and brutal police would be prosecuted.
Yes Mr. President, the past shouldn’t define the future. You would do well to take those words seriously.
Global Research
Black Agenda Report
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